214 APRIL1882.

ON - BY MODERN MACHINERY. -

BY BIR. F. Sf. T. LANGE, OF ST. ACHEUL-LES-AMIENE.

The Combing of Wool by Machinery has made such vast progress towards perfection, that it will be unnecessary to do more than touch upon the old process of combing by hand ; but a few words may be devoted to this subject, in order to give a clearer idea of the work to be performed on the raw wool. The wool, after having been washed, is in a very tangled state, and full of little knots and burrs, technically called buttons, neps, or motes. It therefore requires to be straightened out, and to have the buttons, neps, or motes removed from it; and this can only be done by passing a comb through the mass many times." The wool works much more kindly if the combs (which have steel teeth) are warm, and if a little oil is put on the wool ; hence in former days three hand-combers generally worked around one " fire pot," with burning charcoal in it, and each man placed one of his hand-combs on the edge of the pot to get warm whilst he was using the two others. Of these, one comb was placed on a projecting vertical spike attached to a post (the '' pad post" as it was callqd), with its teeth standing upwards; and into this the comber lashed or struck the end of a bunch or body of wool which he held in his

* Saint Blake, Bishop of Sebaste in Cappadocia, who lived in the second century, is supposed to have been the inventor of the hand-comb, and he die& D martyr, his flesh being torn to pieces with his own iron combs. In the fourth century combing was effected with a single row of pins; when shorter came to be combed, the rows were increased up to five, or even more, in order better to clear the wool of knots and impurities.

Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at UNIV OF CINCINNATI on June 5, 2016 APRIL18LI-2. WOOL-COMBING YACHINEBY. 215 hand, until the comb was loaded. He then took a warm comb, and repeatedly passed its teeth downwards, first through the end of the fringe or mass of wool in thc fixed comb, and then gradually closer and closer up to the teeth ; thus not only getting all the (( buttons,” which he had combed out of the wool, well into and behind the teeth of his own comb, but also combing out about half of the wool from the fixed comb into his own comb. He then placed the comb he had been working with on the post; and taking thc third comb fresh and warm from the fire, proceeded exactly in the same way with this, until it became loaded in its turn. He then fixed this last comb on the post, and proceeded to draw off the projecting fringe of wool (or “milk it off,” as it was sometimes called), drawing it off with his fingers and thumbs into a long and nearly clean of wool. This clean wool is called cc Top.” The above process cost about 2s. 6d. a lb. to do, and sometimes had to be repeated. In France it was common to take out any ‘(buttons,” remaining in the sliver after combing, with the lips, thc sliver being held up against the ljght by the two hands in order to discover them. This process mas called “ Nactage.” The wool and impurities which remain in the comb after drawing off are called ‘“oil,” and are sold to cloth-makers, who require a somewhat ‘(fuzzy ” thread for cloth, and not a long smooth fibre like that used for merino, mousseline-de-laine, serge, , &c. The first Wool-combing Machine was invented by the Reverend Edmund Cartwright of Doncaster in tho year 1790, and he afterwards made further improvements in it. This is the same Edmund Cartwright who invented the surface condenser for steam engines, and the power loom, &c. His combing machine was described shortly in a paper by the late Mr. Benjamin Fothergill (Proceedings, 1853, p. 152). It was an exceedingly ingenious machine, considering that it waa the first to deal with a material which until that time had only been treated by hand ; and the motions that were adopted were evidently in imitation of the hand-motions in combing. Thus the gc Crank Lasher ” H, Fig. 1, Plate 30, has a pair of small feed rollers F, to deal out the sliver as the lasher H lashes it into the receiving comb C, which stands in the place of the fixed hand-comb. This is

Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at UNIV OF CINCINNATI on June 5, 2016 216 WOOL-COMBING MACHINERY. APRIL1882. a large circular comb travelling slowly round on a vertical axis, and having its teeth horizontal, and pointing inwards. The wool is worked or cleaned by a conical working comb W, which is carried round in a vertical circle, with the points of its teeth towards the points of the teeth of the circular receiving comb C. The “top” on the comb W is drawn off by the rollers R,. The large comb C not only brings the wool round to be combed, but when combed carries it on to the other drawing-off rollers R,, where it is drawn off in a clean sliver or tc top,” leaving the and dirt in the comb, from whence it has afterwards to be removed. Mr. Cartwright made several improvements in his machine, but met with great opposition from the hand-combers. A Bill was presented to Parliament to suppress combing by machinery, but was thrown out by a large majority. The combing by this machine was not by any means perfect, nor indeed was the work done by hand perfect, but often had to be done twice over, causing great expense and loss in wool. A little later Hawksley of Nottingham improved this machine, though still leaving much to be desired ; his machine was made by Robert Ramsbotham, who it appeared did not think well of it. It was not until long after this that any combing machine worked at all on the true principle for obtaining really clean (‘top ” ; and it was still later that a machine was invented to take out all the ‘‘ top,” and thus leave none of it mixed with the noil. The next combing machine that deserves notice, and in fact the first that was in any degree satisfactory, was not brought out for thirty years after Cartwright’s. It was invented by Godart, of Amiens in France, in 1823, and was patented here in 1827 by John Platt. It was made by Collier, and was called “Collier’s Comb.” Some of these combs were at work as late as 1854, or perhaps a little later, in this country. The machine was of very simple construction. It consisted of two large circular and cylindrical combs W, Figs. 2 and 2A, Plate 31, (that is to say, combs in which the teeth stood up like a crown parallel with the axis), and two pairs of drawing-off rollers R, and R,, and nothing more. The combs, which were heated by steam, were set with their peripheries running near each other, and their teeth

Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at UNIV OF CINCINNATI on June 5, 2016 APRIL 1882. WOOL-CONBING YAUHINERY. 217 pointing towards each other, but with their axes somewhat inclined to the horizontal in opposite directions. Thus, when one comb had been loaded with wool, which was lashed into it by hand, the teeth of the other comb, as the two combs revolved, would enter the wool, and then, as the teeth separated, would comb it out, leaving the projecting fringe comparatively clean and free from buttons and neps. The combs were gradually advanced towards each other, so as to comb closer and closer up to each other. Finally the combs were stopped, and the drawing-off rollers R, and R, were advanced ; the fringes of wool on each comb being entered between its drawing-off rollers, the rollers mere started, and drew off a sliver of ‘‘ top ” P from the comb, the comb revolving very slowly until it had made one revolution. By this time all the ‘‘ top” had been drawn off from it, and its teeth were then stripped of the remaining noil, and reloaded with wool to start afresh: With this machine the noil often amounted to 33 per cent. in weight of the cardings, i.e., of the wool as brought to the comb, after it has been freed by washing and from dirt, tar, sand, stones, and rubbish. This comb was more suited for long wools, and one great objection was that the wool was imperfectly combed, and that the action was intermittent. Many machines have been brought out since Collier’s, but it is quite unnecessary to attempt to describe them all. The machines of chief note are tabulated below, in order of priority. Heilmann’s, 1845 (often called Schlumberger’s on the Continent). Lister & Donnisthorpe’s, 1849-51-52. Preller & Eastwood’s, 1852 (known on the Continent as Opell’s). Noble’s, 1853. Crabtree’s, 1854. Lister’s, 1856. (Improvement on Noble.) Rawson’s. (Improvement on Lister.) Holden’s, 1856. Smith & Bradley’s, 1871. Mirfield & Hcott’s, 1870. Little & EastWOOd’s, 1872 (made by Messrs. Platt, Oldham). Lange’s, 1881.

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Heilniann’s machine has been fully discussed in Mr. B. Fothergill’s paper (Proc. 1853, p. 153). It may shortly be described as a working comb, to comb the front end of a sliver, with mechanical means for drawing off the portion combed to form a detached “tuft.” The fibres of which the hinder part of this tuft was composed were then drawn through teeth, so that the whole was clean ; and the combed tufts were pieced up by being laid one on the other. It is believed that this is the first case in which detached tufts of wool were drawn through teeth to comb them. This was essentially a short-wool machine, not adapted for long wool, but well adapted for combing cotton, which up to that time had only been carded. Lister & Donnisthorpe’s machine followed shortly after. This takes hold of the front dirty end of a sliver of wool lying in screw gills, by a positive nipping apparatus A (Fig. 3, Plate 30), composed of two jaws of metal, one covered with leather ; these jaws draw out a portion from amongst the teeth of the screw gills by main force, and with such violence indeed as to break and strain some of the fibres. The tuft thus detached is then, by means of the carrying comb B, deposited, with the clean end outwards, on the teeth of a circular comb C, heated by steam, thus forming a fringe which is drawn off by drawing rollers. A dabbing brush D is used to press the wool down into the receiving comb C. All the noil in the circular comb is stripped out before it comes round again. This is a long- wool machine, though it can comb tolerably short wool also. It created quite a revolution in the trade, and was very successful. Preller & Eastwood’s (also known as the Ope11 on the Continent, from the name of the inventor) cleans the tuft of wool on cards, not combs, and then pieces the tufts up to form a sliver. The tufts are taken by a comb, fixed on the end of a reciprocating arm, from the end of a sliver (fed in by rollers intermittently), and the wool is carried past and over rollers clothed with cards, and deposited upon a receiving comb, worked by a travelling chain, from which comb it is drawn off by drawing rollers. A dabbing brush is used to press the carded wool down into the receiving comb. Any noil left on the receiving comb is stripped off subsequently. Crabtree’s machine differs from the last named, inasmuch as, in

Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at UNIV OF CINCINNATI on June 5, 2016 APRIL1882. WOOL-COMEINB PACHINERP. 219 place of a single reciprocating arm carrying a comb to take and deposit tufts, there are several arms having separate combs on them. The arms are capable of turning round on an axis, so that, although when they take wool from the slivers they are travelling point foremost, when they deposit the tuft they are travelling head foremost. The cleaning is by carding rollers, very much as in the last machine, and the noil is similarly stripped from the receiving comb. Noble’s machine is very peculiar ; it consists of a large circular comb some four or five feet in diameter, with a smaller comb, about one fifth the above in diameter, placed inside it and running close to it at one point. The two circumferences travel at the same speed, and both are heated by steam. The machine is fed with a complete circular fringe of slivers, which are arranged outside and around the large comb, and are drawn from a number of ‘‘ balls ” or reels of slivers, about eighteen in number. The ends of these slivers are passed through open-ended boxes or troughs, hinged at their outer ends; so that, on being lifted or depressed, they lift the ends of the slivers, or deposit them in the large comb respectively ; but inasmuch as they only so deposit the slivers at the very point where the large and the small circular combs come together, they engage the ends of the slivers in both combs at once. AR these combs in their revolutions separate, the wool is separated, and the fringe projecting from each is combed by the other, thus presenting two clean fringes of wool, both of which are drawn off as “top,” each by its own drawing-off rollers. A quick-acting dabbing brush is used to press the wool down into the two combs at the proper point. The noil is stripped off from the small comb before it comes round again, and the ends of the slivers are lifted out of the large comb and advanced a little, ready to be again deposited at the right point into the two combs. This machine is well adapted for short wool. Lister’s improvement on Noble consisted in applying two small circular combs instead of one, inside the large comb, which was made larger for the purpose, thus producing a double machine. Rawson’s improvement on Lister consisted in an improved mode of feeding the circular receiving comb, by doing away with the

Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at UNIV OF CINCINNATI on June 5, 2016 230 WOOL-CO111BINa MACHINERY. APRIL1882. nipping apparatus, which often injured the wool, and by causing the feeding head, carrying a set of pins, to advance right up to the receiving comb, and place the projecting end of the sliver into it ; SO that, on the feeding head retiring, it combed the fringe projecting from the receiving comb, and the receiving comb combed the end of the sliver projecting from the feeding head. The outside fringe on the receiving comb is drawn off by drawing-off rollers as “top,” and the short fringe projecting inside the receiving comb is drawn off by other rollers, and returned to the feeding head to pass through again to be combed. Holden’s machine has two pairs of feeding rollers; but (instead of having a reciprocating arm, like Opell’s and Crabtree’s, or a drum with a series of combs to take the fringe, and. then having the projecting tuft combed by card rollers), the feeding-on rollers, callod ‘‘ Boxers,” themselves lash the wool into the receiving comb. After this it is held by a pressing plate, and the projecting fringe is combed by a set of gill fallers working from the bottom upwards. This apparatus is called the ‘‘ Square Motion.” The fallers have some eighteen rows of pins each, and are seven in number ; the wool taken by the square motion is called “Robbins,” and is returned to the cards. The carrying comb has two rows of pins and is 4 ft. in diameter. A comb called a ‘

Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at UNIV OF CINCINNATI on June 5, 2016 APRIL1882. WOOL-COMBING YAOHINEBY. 221 of the two combs. This is with the view of preventing any small button or nep escaping into the u top.” Little & Eastwood‘s machine consists of a wheel or frame, with some six or more sets of nipping apparatus on it. These take tufts from a screw-gill feeding-head, and deposit them in a circular receiving comb after the general manner of Lister’s machine ; the sliver is afterwards drawn from the receiving comb by drawing-off rollers in the usual way.

Lange’s machine introduces an entirely new process, and for the first time combs the whoIe of the ‘‘ top” out of the wool before letting it go. This it accomplishes by first combing out the bulk of the ‘‘ top,” and then combing out such portions of “ top” as are still left mixed with the wool. It thus obtains a much larger proportion of ‘(top,” and leaves nothing but absplute noil to be stripped out of the comb, and go away as noil; instead of having so much ‘‘ top” mixed with the noil, as to necessitate recarding before the whole can be finally combed. It is another advantage of this machine, and B most importitnt one, that it leaves the wool the full length after combing, because the wool is invariably placed on two combs, which comb it by separating; so that it is neither held down by pressing- plates, nor drawn off with anything like a nip, holding the wool fast. A general perspective view of the whole machine is shown in Plate 35; and in order to make this process of combing quite intelligible, the important parts are shown in Figs. 4, 5, and 6, Plate 32, while each operation or motion is also shown by a separate section. The Sections, lfos. 7 to 13, Plates 33 and 34, show the process of combing to which the wool is subjected in its passage from the head comb H, Fig. 4, Plate 32, to the circular receiving comb C, and the subsequent drawing off of the, “ top ” from the latter comb; while the Sections, Nos. 14 to 20, Plate 34, show how the wool, left from the former process in the receiving comb C, is combed by the large and small circular combs C and c, and how the “top” is subsequently drawn off. In Fig. 4, C is the large circular receiving comb, very like that

Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at UNIV OF CINCINNATI on June 5, 2016 222 WOOL-COMBING MACHINERY. APRIL1882. nsed in a Lister or Rawson machine, but having more teeth in it as a rule, and at a finer pitch. H is called the head comb, F the feeding comb, and B, B, the dabbing brushes, Plate 33. In Section 7, the head comb H has retired from its previous stroke, the dabbing brush B, has risen, and the feeding comb F has gone back, ready to receive the sliver when lifted up into it by the grill bars L, between which the sliver enters. In Section 8, the grill bars L have been raised, have lifted the sliver out of the teeth of the head comb H, and pressed it up into the teeth of the feeding comb F. In Section 9, the head comb H has advanced close up to the circular receiving comb C, and at the same time the feeding comb F has moved forward through a greater distance, and drawn forward the sliver with it, through the grill bars L, so that the clean end projects well over and beyond the teeth of the comb C. In Section 10, the grill bars L have been dropped, and the dabbing brushes B, B, have both descended, and pressed the sliver into the teeth of the circular comb C and the head comb H. In Section 11, the head comb H has been drawn away from the circular comb C, and has consequently combed the fringe of wool remaining in the circular comb C, whilst the end of its own sliver has been combed by the comb C. Thus both portions are combed by the separation of combs, which is the best possible method. The brush now rises again into the position shown in Section 7, A the feeding comb F goes back to receive a further portion of sliver, and the operation is repeated as before. It is obvious that it is a clean fringe of wool which is left on the inside of the comb C, as well as on the outside, because this inside fringe is that which wzs combed by the circular comb in the former stroke. These two fringes have now to be drawn off. Section i2, Plate 34, shows how, as the circular comb slowly revolves, it brings the outside fringe to the horizontal drawing-off rollers R,, shown also in Fig. 4, and placed outside the comb, by which a clean sliver of combed wool is drawn from the comb. Further on, as in Section 13, the comb brings the inside fringe to the vertical drawing- off rollers R,, by which another clean sliver of combed wool (called

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“Backings”) is drawn from the comb C, and run out of the machine, together with the first sliver, through a tweedler I. In Sections 14 to 20, Plate 34, C is a section of the large circular receiving comb as before, and c a section of the small inner circular comb. In Section 14, C is shown with the wool that was left in it after the previous drawing off of I‘ top ” from the inside and outside ; and c, the small circular comb, is still at a distance from it. In Section 15, this wool has been lifted out of the comb C, in an unbroken state, by lifting knives K, Figs. 5 and 6 ; and the small circular comb c has approached close up to the large comb C. In Section 16, this wool has been shunted sideways, about half its width, by passing through an oblique trough T, Figs. 5 and 6 ; and is ready to be forced down into the two circular combs C and c by the quick-acting dabbing brush B,. Section 17 shows it so pressed down by the brush B,, so as to be thoroughly held by the two combs, about half being in each comb. Thus the centre of the mass of wool left in the large circular comb 43, after the first operation, is now at the exact line of junction of the two combs C, c, Fig. 5. In Section 18, the brush B, has risen, and the combs in their further revolution have separated from each other. Each has combed the wool projecting as a fringe from the other, thus leaving one clean fringe of combed wool on the inside of the large circular comb C, and another on the outside of the small circular comb c, the wool thus being combed by the separation of combs as before. Of these fringes, that which projects inside the large comb is allowed to remain in it, and to pass round to the feeding- head, where the fresh wool is being fed in. It then passes on, as part of the main bulk of wool inside the large comb, and is drawn off by the vertical drawing-off rollers R,, Section 19. The other clean fringe of long wool, which is left in the small receiving comb c, is drawn off by a third pair of drawing-off rollers R,, Section 20, and forms an additional or third sliver of clean wool, which is added to the other two, and runs out of the machine through the tweedler J, so as to form one continuous body of clean ‘‘ top.”

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The noil remaining in the small circular comb is lifted out by lifting-knives at k, Fig. 4. This is all actual noil, and is used at once for the ordinary purposes for which noil is adapted ; it is rather more valuable than the noil ordinarily obtained, as it has had less strain put on it, and is less broken than if it had been subjected to a positive nip in a nipping apparatus.

The clean cc top ” is also more valuable than usual, because it has not been broken or strained in the combing by any nipping apparatus, nor has been violently treated in any way ;thus it remains of its full natural length, or about one-fifth longer than if it had been combed on a machine working with a nip, and therefore can be spun to a higher number or cc count.” The proportion of noil to cardings is greatly reduced in this machine, and is in fact brought down to (I minimum. Another very important item is that the machine takes such a heavy feed, and works so fast, that it does much more work in a day than most machines ; besides which, no part of the wool requires carding over again.

Abstmct of Discussiolz on Wool -Cornbiq Nachiwery. Xr. E. A. COWPERshowed the way in which the operation of combing by hand was carried out. The woolcomber rolled up the wool into a sort of tuft, without twisting it, and then loaded the post comb with the end of the tuft. In this tuft some of the wool was clean and some dirty, and all mixed. In working it with the

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hand-comb, care had to be taken to begin at the extreme end of the fibres ; if the combing were begun too close up to the teeth of the post comb, the wool would be torn all to pieces. After having at length combed the tuft close up to the teeth of the post comb, the man then proceeded to draw the combed wool off from the post aomb. It was so firmly held in the comb that it was necessary to have a pair of pincers to lay hold of it. With these it was gradually drawn down, commencing as before on the part furthest from the teeth; there was rather a knack in catching hold of it in the right place, not too far from the teeth and not too near. If it were caught hold of too far off from the teeth, it would be pulled all to pieces ; if too close to the teeth, the pull would tear it, or break it, or it would not come out of the comb. The comber kept on pulling it

-“ n;illring ” it off, as it was called-until he had got a sliver of tolerably clean wool about two yards in length. If the comber drew it too much at a time, the sliver was broken; it was therefore necessary to draw a little only each time, a fresh hold being taken with the pincers before the next drawing.

Mr. LANGEexhibited a few samples of combed wool, which he had brought over from Amiens to show what quality of work his machine

produced. One sample was a sliver of “ top ” as it came direct from this combing machine. On reference to the drawings it would be seen that the comb was always kept completely filled with wool, which was continually drawn off and fed on; there was in fact only a small portion of the machine which was not completely filled with wool. He was able now to exhibit a sample of Australian Botany wool obtained during one minute’s trial, when the machine was producing 500 lbs. of top in a day of twelve hours. There were also samples of French wools with two kinds of , ono off the old machine and the other off the new machine, from which it was clearly visible that that off the latter was less than half the size of that off the former. The accompanying Table showed the comparative percentages of noil made from the cardings, when combing various lots of wool in one of the former machines at his works, and in his improved machine.

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Comparison of Wool Combing by Old machine and by Lunge machine. I I No. of Description of Wool.* Lot. Percentag Ieight o of NOILtc ror per Carding& day of 2 hours.

~ NO. Per cent. Lhs. Per cent. Lbs. 5924 nuenos Apes, x-ery short fine skin-wool, washed 41.0 225 20.0 300 5954 1st quality French wool, in the grease . . . 32.0 314 16.0 419 5955 3rd ,, ,, ,. ,, I, . . . 24.0 392 12.7 522 5966 1st ,, ,, ,, washed . . . . . 30.0 294 14.5 392 5974 . 2nd ,, .. ,. in the grease . . . 22.0 337 , 10.8 450 5970 2ni ,, ,, ,, ,. ,, (Champagne) 22.5 300 11.0 400 5977 ZndqualityFrcnchskin-wool ...... 17‘5 255 8.5 340 5978 1st 9, 8, ,, ...... 21.0 250 10.3 334 5979 18t I, ,, ,, ...... 19.0 324 9-6 432 5997 1st quality Australian Botany wool . . . . 27.5 400 13.3 500 6012 1st ,, French skin-wool, dry . . . . 15.0 330 7-0 440 6013 2nd ,, ,, ,, ,, . . . . 12.0 450 5.8 600 I * The “washed wool’’ is what is sheared from the living animal after washing. The ‘‘ skin-wool ” is what is obtained from the skins of dead animals, from which it is removed with the aid of caustic lime. Of each kind there are generally four qualities, the first being the finest and therefore the most valuable. Different lots vary so much in regard to the cleanness of the cardings delivered to the combing machines, as to preclude s fair comparison of the two machines, escept where both of them comb from the same lot.

It would be seen that with the fourth lot the proportion of noil

to cardings in combing ‘‘ first-quality French wool washed ” was 30 per cent. with the old.machifie, while with the new machine it was brought down to only 145 per cent., or less than half; at the same time the weight of “top ” produced per day of twelve hours was increased from 294 lbs. in the old comb to 392 lbs. in the new. Similar results were shown with the other lots in the Table; and they had been arrived at by being able to have in the new machine very much larger or closer combs, of which he had brought samples, in order that they might be compared with the old hand-comb that Mr. Cowper had kindly shown. In the hand-comb the pins were about six to the inch, whereas in the present comb, of the most modern make, they mere forty to the inch. They were made slightly oval, in order to keep them strong enough whcn made so

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small as required for the closer pitch. One of the samples exhibited of combed wool corresponded with the extraordinarily high production of 6401bs. of cc top” in a day of twelve hours, and in that case also the noil had been very much reduced ; thus attaining the great aim in all wool-combing machines, namely to give as much c‘top” as possible and as little noil as possible, without deteriorating the

value either of the “ top” or of the noil. In all combing operations it ought to be remembered tha€ wool was a tender fibre, and every care should be taken not to strain it in any way, but to leave it of its full strength and elasticity or “nerf,” as this was of the greatest importance in 6ctop”for to B high number of yarn. It might be remarked that the fibre of wool, when examined in the microscope, appeared full of little joints from end to end; and if these were strained, the fibre lost its elasticity to a great degree.

The PRESIDENTdrew attention to the new combs exhibited, which were beautiful specimens of work. He enquired Fhat was the full size of the circle of the comb in the machine.

Mr. LANGEreplied that the circle of the receiving comb was 3 ft. diameter. The round pins in the combs as formerly made were not so strong; and it was by a great improvement in machinery that they were now able to be made oval.

Mr. A. GREENWOODsaid that several of Mr. Lange’s combs had been at work for upwards of six months, and there were now eight machines at work in his wool-combing factory at Amiens, while two more were being altered to the new plan. He (Nr. Greenwood) had visited Amiens on two occasions on purpose to examine these machines thoroughly, and he was convinced they were a great improvement on previous machines. His own firm had undertaken the manufacture of the combs in this country, and he hoped that, by the time of the meeting of the Members of the Institution in Leeds in the summer, they would be able to show some of the combs at work there. One of the machines was going to be exhibited at the Exhibition at Bradford, which would accompany the opening of the Textile College, earl3 in x2

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June, by the Prince of Wales. As Mr. Langc had said, the great advantage of the machine was the enormous amount of work that it would turn out, together with the reduction of noil. He believed it was generally admitted that it woula turn out about double the quantity of the same class of wool, as compared with the machines generally used in Bradford, such as Noble’s or Holden’s; those machines being .principally used for combing Botany wool in Bradford.

Mr. LANQE,SEN., said that for twenty years he had worked in France with the earlier machines that had been described in his son’s paper, and his success was owing to a single point : he could not say that he had been able to beat all the other machines in every respect, but he had succeeded in doing one thing which the others did not, namely in leaving the combed fibre .longer than the other machines did. At the same time however he had made more short wool or

noil, which the French “top ” merchants were not pleased at, and they told him that he must find some means of reducing that proportion. For some time he had not listened to them, because it was difficult to please everybody ; but at length the means had now been found, not only of reducing the proportion of noil, but also of increasing the produce from the machine and making better work. The practical difficulty lay in the circumstance that to reduce the noil it was necessary to reduce the width of the comb, whilst on the other hand it was really on the width of the comb that the produce of combed wool from any machine depended. This difficulty had been surmounted by increasing the number of rows of teeth in the combs. If a comb had only one row of teeth, it clearly could not comb the wool as clean as with two rows. To reduce the noil to the proportion desired, he had been obliged to fix the number of rows at seven; but even that did not do justice to the wool, and they had accordingly advanced to the teq ~owsthey were now using, which came up to his beau ideal of what a combing machine should be. The ten-row new machines were reducing the noil by one-half, and doing better work than had formerly been done with seven rows. To snm up, the work was better, thc wool was longer, and the

Downloaded from pme.sagepub.com at UNIV OF CINCINNATI on June 5, 2016 APRIL 1882. WOOL-COMBING MAOHINEBY. 229 produce was nearly double of that from any other machine he knew of,

Mr. E. A. COWPEBsaid hc had seen the machine at work and had examined it carefully, andjhe had certainly learned something from it in wool-combing. Some years ago he had a great deal to do with some of the disputes about wool-combing machines-Heilmann’s, Lister’s, Crabtree’s, and others; and Hr. Lange’s machine was certainly a very great improvement upon what was then done. In those days, the object was to get the wool cleaned somehow, without caring so much about noil; but with the present machine, which combed what would otherwise go away as noil, all the long wool was got out, and nothing sent away but real noil. The present machines mere thus working in the most economical manner possible, because they were getting as much valuable wool out of the mass as possible. There was very little real noil in some wools. Although, when the locks of wool were taken up, the wool looked very dirty, yet by R very few strokes of the comb, properly applied, it became reasonably clean ; and what was left behind, if the action were repeated twenty times, would be very small. The expense of combing wool by hand was very great, namely about 2s. 6d. per lb. if it was done properly; partly because it had to be done twice. Lister’s machine cut the cost down to 5gd., and now the price was about 24d. to 4d. His own opinion was that Mr. Lange would have a very great run with his machines. Messrs. Greenwood and Batley were now taking up the matter COW amow, as far as England was concerned, making the tools for it, and everything else required. At the Leeds meeting the Members would have a treat in seeing the machine at work. It would not only be at the Bradford Exhibition, but he hoped at other places also. There was one point that might be mentioned, which was not obvious at first sight, namely that the wool, with this machine, was not strained, or pulled with violence, or broken ; for just as a man’s arm, if strained and pulled partly out of ‘joint, would never be right again, or have the same spring in it, so if the wool was nipped and pulled violently, the spring mas taken Out, and it was not as good as

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it was before. In this machine the wool was entirely combed by the

sepsration of combs, and there was no rL nipping ” or rL pressing

plate ” used. He had no doubt that, in actual practice, the machine would be a great favourits. Mr. Lange, Sen., had informed them that it had reduced the noil to rather less than one-half of what it had been before, and did an enormously increased quantity of work; and that of course was a very great improvement. Moreover this machine, unlike most others, could be adjusted quickly to comb different classes of wool. If they could comb the wool in England as well as this machine did it, and pay attention to obtaining the soft and fine qualities, as was .done in France, he hoped that what

was called “ French merino ” and ‘(mousseline-de-laine ” would be made in England equal to the French, which, he was sorry to say, was not the case at the present time.

The PRESIDENTwas sure they were much indebted to Xr. Lange for having brought his valuable improvement before them, and for having taken so much trouble in bringing over the specimens he had exhibited. It would certainly be something to look forward to, in connection with the summer meeting in Leeds-which he believed would be one of the most successful meetings they had ever had-to see there so beautiful B specimen of mechanism as this in actual operation.

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Section,. No 14.

Section/ No16.

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,TeCtion/ No 19. .YP?GZWrz, NO 20.

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Genrrnl View of Lung’s Mnchitir.

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